I suspect that many people (like me) will say that the rock feature is called Adel Crags as that is the name that I've only ever heard it called by. However, on all of the maps that I've seen in the Old Maps UK website dating from 1851 up to an 1982/1993 one it is named Alwoodley Crags (in Alwoodley Crags Plantation) and also on OS maps from 1891 to 1934 (I've not seen more recent OS maps). I notice though that in the Leodis website it is called Adel Crags but with a note that it is sometimes called Alwoodley Crags. There was up to recently a wooden sign close-by stating Adel Crags but that sign seems to have gone (probably rotted away).

I wonder when the name Adel Crags began to be used and is it an accepted official name or not?

Edits note. Just to clarify. My first edit was to correct a spelling error (changing Planation to Plantation) and my second was to edit an error in that edit! Oops, I must do better .

This is an extract from the National Library of Scotland map information page, it explains how OS determine the text on maps

The procedures for naming places within the Survey's mapping practices were laid down first in Lincolnshire and, in more detail, in Ireland from 1825 by Thomas Colby. In 'Instructions for the Interior Survey of Ireland', Colby spelled out the guidance for mapping parties on the question of the correct names of places: 'The persons employed on the survey are to endeavour to obtain the correct orthography of the names of places by diligently consulting the best authorities within their reach. The name of each place is to be inserted as it is commonly spelt, in the first column of the name book: and the various modes of spelling it used in books, writings &c. are to be inserted in the second column, with the authority placed in the third column opposite to each'. Principles and dependence on 'authorities'Several points are noteworthy here. First, mapping was reliant upon accurate naming: indeed, mapping depended upon such naming since, however accurate maps might be in trigonometrical terms, they were valueless as records of property ownership and guides to taxation without agreed names. Secondly, there is a presumption that there was a 'correct orthography' and that that form would be sufficiently widely understood for it to be 'commonly spelt' and written down. Thirdly, both the names in given localities and thus, in time, the maps of the country as a whole, directly depended both upon the 'best authorities' within reach of the mapping party and, in turn, upon the authorisation of these authorities' views in written form in the Survey's name books. More detailed guidance given in later instructions noted that:'For the name of a house, farm, park or wood, or other part of an estate the owner is the best authority. For names generally the following are the best individual authorities and should be taken in the order given: Owners of property; estate agents; clergymen, postmasters and schoolmasters, if they have been some time in the district; rate collectors; borough and county surveyors; gentlemen residing in the district; Local Government Board Orders; local histories; good directories. Assistance may also be obtained from local antiquarian and other societies, in connection with places of antiquarian and national interest. Respectable inhabitants of some position should be consulted. Small farmers and cottagers are not to be depended on, even for the names of the places they occupy, especially as to the spelling. But a well-educated and independent occupier is, of course, a good authority' Object Name BooksThis system remained largely unchanged within the work of Ordnance Survey. What by 1850 was regarded as 'a matter of routine' was reiterated by James in his published instructions in 1873, and repeated in 1902 and in 1932. And from examination for Scotland of what were called the 'Original Object Name Books' – the ledgers in which Survey staff recorded the names of places – we can understand how the maps came to carry the names they did.

Object Name Book specimen page.

The Original Object Name Books used in Scotland came in two forms, each with a different system of headed columns. The first type, commonly used in surveying and naming the Highlands parishes, was essentially a 'field' version of the Name Book and had five headings: Received Name; Object; Description; Township or Parish; Authority for Spelling [with their name(s) and address(es)]. Thus, under the first heading, names of the given 'object' – natural features, inhabited places and so on – would be given by the indicated informant who spelt the word for the collector, usually an officer in the Ordnance Survey, to write down. The second type, used commonly in the Lowlands, had an additional column: 'Orthography as recommended to be used in the new Plans'. The column of 'Descriptive Remarks, or other General Observations which may be considered of Interest' usually only duplicated the information contained in the 'Description' column, but additional information was sometimes given. This fuller version was completed by Survey officers in the local Ordnance Survey office and it was at this point, removed from the field and from the informant, that other sources, such as maps, texts, or the views of appropriate local scholarly bodies could be added to the column 'Authority for those modes of spelling when known'.

Loiner in Cyprus wroteColonI have never heard them called Alwoodley Crags. My recollections going back to the 1950s was always Adel Crags.

Hi Loiner in Cyprus .

Yes that was my knowledge as I've only ever heard the name said as Adel Crag(s). It was the recent news of the body that was reportedly discovered near Alwoodley Crags that caused me to wonder about the name.

Thanks for your interesting post. I was amused by the "Small farmers and cottagers are not to be depended on, even for the names of the places they occupy, especially as to the spelling. But a well-educated and independent occupier is, of course, a good authority". Quite right of course that the knowledge of the peasants should never be trusted, which I suspect will still apply today!

It's interesting how place names change over time and why they have done so. On an 1851 map I've seen it states Addle but by at least 1893 (possibly sooner) it is stated as Adel and from then. It apparently is Adele in the Domesday Book of 1086.

Edit added June 18 2017. I've found that on page 161 of Ralph Thoresby's 1715 'Ducatus Leodiensis; or, the topography of the Town and Parish of Leedes' in a section that mentions names he states "I will offer another, which I am induced to from the Similitude of the Names, the Agel or Adelocum of the Ancients, and the present Adle or Adel, as it is writ in some ancient Charts in my Collections".